Nico Rosberg has high praise for Max Verstappen. Despite a challenging season at Red Bull, the Dutchman remains the ‘driver of the year’ for the former Mercedes champion. Rosberg sees where Verstappen is gaining time compared to the many teammates he has already outperformed, and emphasizes that the ‘magical’ world champion is still in the race for his fifth consecutive title.
In the run-up to the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen stated that he does not yet feel like he is competing for the title. McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are said to have a much better car, making it difficult for him to compete for the championship. However, Nico Rosberg, who won the title in 2016 at the expense of Lewis Hamilton, believes that Verstappen is indeed involved in the fight for the World Championship.
“Max (Verstappen) is still doing well,” Rosberg told Sky Sports. “The last normal circuit was Imola, and there he dominated the race. He was very, very fast. Here in Spain, we see that he is a bit behind, but he is still close, and you never really know how much fuel the teams use in free practice. He is driving incredibly well.” While Norris and Piastri were the fastest in VT1 and VT2 respectively, Verstappen recorded the second and third time.”
A Master at Work
“For me, he is, so far, the driver of the year,” Rosberg added. “You simply cannot overlook Max Verstappen. It’s been a long time since I’ve been trackside, but the magic of Max Verstappen is still there.” As a former driver, the 39-year-old German can precisely pinpoint where the Dutchman excels. “These cars are, of course, very twitchy at the rear,” he explained. “You see the drivers making a lot of corrections – the rear wheels always want to break away. Everyone has their hands full with it.”
“But when Max Verstappen takes the corner, it’s truly incredible,” Rosberg grinned. “He filters out the understeer and turns it into oversteer – any other driver would have to freestyle at that point, but he knows how to perfectly control the oversteer. How he manages to maintain balance in such a narrow window is simply masterful. Incredible. With Yuki Tsunoda, for example, you see the same amount of understeer, but as soon as he hits the gas, the rear end breaks away again. That’s the essence. That’s why Verstappen is always six-tenths faster than all his teammates,” Rosberg concluded. “They were all good drivers, but it comes down to the fine feel and the speed with which you can process very, very small details. It’s simply artistic.”
